04 October

Bible In 365 Days                       

Matthew 7-8

Matthew 7

After thus enunciating the laws of the Kingdom, and bringing men into the realm of direct dealing with God, the King authoritatively set up the standard of judgment. No man is to be his brother's judge. He cannot, first because he can never know all the facts of the case, and, further, because his own need is so great that any time occupied in censorious criticism is so much taken from the all-important work of attending to his own "beam." And yet there is to be discrimination in dealing with holy things, for "dogs" and "swine" have no understanding of their value.

Just as the bewildered soul is on the verge of crying out, "Who is sufficient for these things?" there comes a glorious announcement of an open treasure house. The things enjoined are, indeed, too hard for us in our own strength, Then "ask, seek, knock," and in every case the promise is simple and sublime, "It shall be given," "Ye shall find," "It shall be opened."

Then our Lord gave His invitation to His Kingdom. The entrance is through a strait gate. Character and conduct are supreme. The proof of loyalty is always in the fruit borne, never in the profession made, or the works done.

A profession that is not sincere is profanation; and service rendered that has not a pure motive is sacrilege. What of those who enter that strait gate, and, hearing the words of the King-do them? To them is ensured a permanence of character no storms or waves can wreck.

What of those who, hearing the words, disregard them? To them all building is folly, for the sandy foundations of wrong motives will cause irremedial ruin in the day of testing. What wonder that the crowds were astonished at such teaching!

Here ends the Manifesto of the King, the Great Charter of humanity. When presently man shall rest in perfect peace and joy, it will be within the sacred circle of this unfolding of law.

Matthew 8

The King passed down from the mountain and from teaching in order that He might bring the Kingdom nearer to His people, and give them examples of its benefits. What a wondrous application of His power; leprosy, palsy, fever, all fly before Him, and mark the cosmopolitanism of His giving a leper, a Roman, a woman, all the despised in the Jewish mind. In that wonderful evening, when the crowds gathered, and the King took their infirmities and bore their diseases, what a radiant revelation He gave them of the power and love of His heart, and therefore of the privilege of entering His Kingdom.

A time of sifting and testing followed. Men who would follow Him, but- They have had their successors all down the years, as also have the Gadarenes, who, when He interfered with their illicit trading, formally requested Him to depart, notwithstanding that He had left on their shores a man whom by His coming He had transformed from the curse of the countryside into a law-abiding citizen. Even the disciples most closely associated with Him had so little confidence they did not believe in His power unless they saw Him at work. They must wake Him to still the storm. In grace, He stilled the tempest, but He also rebuked the disciples' lack of faith.